Description: This image features Leo Warren Jenkins serving on Guadalcanal. Born in Succasunna, New Jersey, Jenkins enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942 upon completion of his doctoral degree at New York University. For his distinguished service, Jenkins was awarded a Bronze Star and two presidential unit citations. In 1947, Jenkins accepted the position of Dean of Men at then East Carolina Teachers College. He succeeded John D. Messick as President of East Carolina College in 1960 and in 1967 he was designated as the first Chancellor of East Carolina University. As president and chancellor, Jenkins oversaw major increases in student enrollment, the addition of a medical school, a major building campaign, and spearheaded the drive for university status. Upon his retirement in 1978 he continued to serve the citizens of North Carolina as a special assistant for Economic Development for Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. Jenkins passed away on January 14, 1989. Ever proud of being a Marine, he once remarked, “…it has been brought to my attention that there are more Marines enrolled in this institution than in any other college or university in the world. This pleases me very much for I shall always be proud of my association with these men. Since revolutionary war days, it has always been said that once a Marine always a Marine. This will be my lasting honor.”

Description: The E. C. Winslow Collection (#1174) contains a variety of postcards. Among them is this funny postcard sent by Corporal John Pittman to E.C. (Edward Cyrus) Winslow. It is from the year 1944 and was sent from Camp Polk, Louisiana. This collection is definitely worth seeing for anyone interested in the World War II era and in postcards. Persons who want to get additional information on this item can go to https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/1174

Description: Cats are ethereal creatures that span time and space. They are highly prized members of the science fiction and fantasy community. Often purring away in our homes and spaces, they are lords and ladies of all they reign. We don’t pick our feline friends but instead they chose us, and having made their choice we can travel with them to distance lands and worlds in space. Catfantastic is a collection of short cat stories collected by Andrew Norton and Martin Greenberg. So join them in these stories as they save damsels in distress, conduct “bioengineered” cat diplomatic missions, ward off dangers to humans, and save a major public dam project from destruction. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, its….SUPERCAT.

Description: Solicitor John A. Richardson motions to have Thomas Brady’s trial moved out of Robeson County, N.C. owing to strong feeling among the citizens there that Brady’s murder of Stephen Locklier was “considered to have been a good deed.” Brady was connected to a band of outlaws known as the Lowrie (also spelled Lowry) Gang who resisted the Confederate Home Guard in the area of Robeson County during the Civil War as well as their successors in the period running through the early 1870s.

An interesting period account of the Lowrie Gang is available in George Alfred Townsend’s The Swamp Outlaws: or, The North Carolina Bandits : Being a Complete History of the Modern Rob Roys and Robin Hoods (1872). The Langford North Carolina Collection has a recent reprint available for use among its reference holdings under the call number NoCar Ref F262.R6 S93 2015.

Also noteworthy and available for free electronic access through East Carolina University Digital Collections is The Lowrie History: As Acted in Part by Henry Berry Lowrie, The Great North Carolina Bandit, with Biographical Sketch of His Associates (Lumberton, N.C.: Lumbee Pub. Co., c1909) at https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/17019 .

On his return from the Yalta Conference in February 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, met King Saud [Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdul Rahman al Faisal al Saud] of Saudi Arabia to establish a postwar alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis needed to find a new ally to replace the rapidly weakening Royal Navy, which had protected Saudi independence for decades. The Americans wanted to ensure a growing and reliable source of oil to ensure the postwar recovery of the world economy. The meetings took place, during 12-14 February, aboard the American cruiser USS QUINCY (CA-71) which lay at anchor in the Great Bitter Lake portion of the Suez Canal. Despite the dissimilarities between the sides, the agreements which emerged have proved highly successful. The US agreed to defend Saudi independence and the Saudis agreed to be a reliable source of energy for the world. The agreement hammered out at the QUINCY meetings remain in effect to this day, despite serious misgivings on both sides, and recurrent tensions over the policies of each nation.

The attached document, headed “Saudi Arabian Guests February 12-14, 1945”, lists the members of the entourage which accompanied King Saud during his stay aboard the QUINCY. It was published to help the ship’s crew check the identity of the visitors. The list was preserved by David L. Byrd, who was a member of the US Naval Academy’s class of 1941 and junior officer aboard the QUINCY. He donated the David L. Byrd Papers to East Carolina University in 1996.

The King’s named entourage makes very interesting reading. It includes several expected members: the King’s brother and sons; his ministers and counsellors, his chaplain, and his physicians, various tribal representatives, and their various assistants, interpreters, and specialists. However, the list also has a medieval quality in that it includes the King’s astrologer and fortune-teller, his food-taster and caterer, his chamberlain and valet, the Royal purse-bearer, and two ceremonial coffee-servers. Even more interesting, however, are the unnamed members of the entourage, which included 10 guards armed with sabres and daggers, 3 valets, one for each of the royals, and “9 Miscellaneous slaves: cooks, porters, scullions” a total of 48 individuals. Reading the list, one has to wonder what the QUINCY’s crewmen, especially the African Americans among them, might have thought about the proceedings. Nearing the end of a great World War to defeat enemies whose stated goal was to enslave the world, the American president was welcoming slaves aboard an American warship, making an alliance with their masters, and then permitting the slaves to be taken off the ship, without making any effort to free them.

Description: Alexander L. Manly was born near Raleigh in 1866 and was the editor of an African American newspaper, the Wilmington Record, he and his brother Frank owned in Wilmington, North Carolina. The brothers became the target of violence after publishing an editorial (written by Alex) in August 1898 that upset the white citizens of Wilmington. Their printing offices were destroyed by a mob in November 10, 1898, but the brothers escaped due in large part to their light skin color. At the time of the violence, Alex’s fiancée Caroline “Carrie” Sampson Sadgwar was performing in England with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. After her return, they were married in Washington, D.C., and moved to Pennsylvania. The document below is a typescript (done by their son Milo Manly) of a letter written by Carrie Manly to her sons Milo A. Manly and Lewin Manly. Typescripts of nine letters (1953-1955) written by her to her sons detailing the story of her life are in this collection. In this January 14, 1954, letter she relates the story of the Wilmington Race Riot and her future husband’s escape to safety.

Description: Since we are under considerable construction at present, the following image offers some past history of construction of and around Joyner Library. The image features an exterior view of J.Y. Joyner Library on the East Carolina University campus during the 1974 construction of the west wing addition to the library. Mendenhall Student Center in the background.

The image below is of a program for an event held on May 27, 1932 in Farmville, North Carolina. This event celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of Farmville, the bicentennial of the birth of George Washington, the marking of the Old Plank Road and the memory of Alfred Moye. Shown below is the program for the event which included a number of local speakers.

Description: A Photograph of the General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, General Robert A. McClure, Lieutenant General Robert Frederick Sink. Lieutenant General Robert Frederick Sink was born in Lexington, North Carolina and served in both World War II and Korea. General Sink had a distinguished career as a pioneer in the use of airborne warfare. As commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the Army Airborne Corps, he was sent to Europe in 1942. He subsequently participated in the Allied Invasion of Normandy, parachuting under cover of dark before seaborne troops landed. His troops saw action at the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne. After World War II, he served as Chief of Staff of the RYUKUS command (1949), assistant commander of the Seventh Infantry Division in Korea (1951), and member of the Joint Airborne Troop Board at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (1954). In 1958, Sink was given command of the Strategic Army Corps (STRAC) and the 18th Airborne. In 1960, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and took command of the U.S. Army in the Caribbean, a post he held until his retirement in 1961 due to poor health. Sink died at Fort Bragg in 1965.

Description: This chart was part of a large survey done by the Hydrographic Office of the U.S. Navy just prior to the Civil War. The survey was conducted by Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-1867) Superintendent, and under the local supervision of John Newland Maffitt (1819-1886). Using these charts Maffitt, later in the Confederate Navy, was known as the “Prince of the Privateers” for his extraordinary success as a blockade runner and commerce raider. Maffitt also commanded the CSS Albemarle which dominated the Roanoke River for a time during the war. Of special interest on this chart is Carolina City, NC which was a rival to a development to the east by John Motley Moreland called Shepard’s Point. Both developments were merged into Morehead City. For more information on Carolina City please visit: http://friendsoffortmacon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/The-Lost-Carolina-City.pdf